Shareholder Karen Asher-Cohen Being Honored by Jewish Museum of Florida – Florida International University
On Sunday, April 3rd Radey shareholder Karen Asher-Cohen is being honored as a recipient of this year’s Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award sponsored by the Jewish Museum of Florida – Florida International University. This year marks the 20th year of the awards that recognize Jewish women in Florida who have broken the proverbial glass ceiling in professional fields that are normally dominated by men.
“Justice, justice, you shall pursue,” has been the driving force of Karen Asher-Cohen’s love of the law. Her 33-year legal career in Florida has been all about breaking the glass ceiling and pursuing justice – first as the only woman felony prosecutor in Tallahassee and for the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor, and then in the traditionally male-dominated insurance industry and legal professions. Karen became Deputy Commissioner at the Florida Department of Insurance and went on to be a founding shareholder of the firm in 2003. She represents dozens of national and multi-national insurance companies and public boards in Florida on insurance regulatory and transactional issues and in commercial litigation.
In 1998, Karen started representing the State of Florida as a founding member of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC). She helped draft the original Memorandum of Understanding to create ICHEIC and she drafted the Florida “Holocaust Victims Assistance Act,” s. 626.9543, prosecuted European insurance companies and their subsidiaries for failure to pay Holocaust-era insurance claims, helped draft the ICHEIC claims process that ultimately was translated into more than 20 languages (at no cost to claimants), and audited Holocaust-era insurance policy documents in Germany and Switzerland. By using her power as an insurance regulator, along with her intricate knowledge of insurance law, sense of justice, and strong Jewish faith, Karen was able to help achieve justice for Holocaust survivors and their heirs, with results including more than $500 million in insurance and humanitarian claims paid to more than 82,000 claimants.